All in LA Blog»Take Action for Better, Safer Streets on Mobility Monday June 15

Take action for Better, Safer Streets on Mobility Monday June 15

by Thomas Yee12scon June 12, 2015

Join the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition for #MobilityMondayLA in Support of Mobility Plan 2035!

Cyclists, walkers, and Angelenos throughout the City are getting set to pound the virtual pavement on Monday in support of the City of Los Angeles's Mobility Plan 2035. If you love CicLAvia and want to see safer, more walkable and bikable streets, read on to find out why this is a critical moment in time. Check out the LA County Bicycle Coalition's website for even more detail on taking action yourself on Monday June 15.

Later this month, the Los Angeles City Council will consider Mobility Plan 2035, the first comprehensive update to the city’s transportation policies since 1999. A lot has changed since the 1990s: we now have regular CicLAvias, everyday bike ridership has spiked, and the voter-approved expansion of the region’s transit system is rapidly under construction. Our streets are now seen as places for people, not just thoroughfares for cars. Technologies like real-time transit info, ride hailing apps, and bike share promise to give Angelenos new tools to take full advantage of the new infrastructure being built. The adoption of the unprecedented Plan for a Healthy Los Angeles earlier this year has grounded mobility conversations in the context of health and equity, recognizing that better transportation policy provides economic mobility for underserved residents while promoting community health and active transportation. And, Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Sustainable City pLAn calls for increasing walking, biking and transit to 35% of all trips in just 10 years to help meet the city’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. The resulting Mobility Plan 2035 is a plan that is right for Los Angeles and right for our multimodal future.

What does the Mobility Plan do?

Makes safety the City’s #1 transportation priority, particularly the safety of children walking to school

Sets design speeds for city streets and provides engineering and enforcement solutions to stop the constant increase in speed limits

As with any significant progress, skeptics and naysayers are vocally opposing the Plan, either in whole or in part. Some neighborhood groups are fearful that a transition away from a car-dominated city to a balanced system might snarl traffic or delay emergency responders. Meanwhile, a vocal minority are taking this opportunity to attack specific projects, which threatens to piecemeal a well-planned citywide network. This Plan is supported by a broad base of residents, business groups, environmental organizations, and health advocates. Now is the time to demonstrate that support to the City Council.

The LA County Bicycle Coalition is calling on Angelenos to take to social media, email, and old fashioned cell phones to voice support for the Mobility Plan on Monday June 15. Full details about what the Coalition is asking you to do can be found here.